Power out for 2,300 in Penobscot, Hancock counties

BANGOR, Maine — About an hour after they were called out to deal with power outages in the Corinth area, Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. repair crews found themselves working to restore power to more than 2,300 customers in Penobscot and Hancock counties.

Both rounds of electrical outages were the result of a series of severe summer storms that ripped through much of Maine on Tuesday, breaking tree limbs and bringing down power lines, spokeswoman Susan Faloon said in an outage update issued shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday night.

Faloon said the second storm struck Penobscot County the hardest just before 5 p.m., moving on to Hancock County later.

Damage is widespread and crews will work well into tonight and likely the morning working to repair the damage, she said.

The second wave of outages came slightly more than an hour after several large circuits feeding Corinth, Alton, Bradford, Charleston and surrounding towns were affected by a fast-moving storm that brought down several limbs and power lines in that area, Faloon said.

That round of problems left 3,400 without power.

Strong winds and heavy rain were reported in the area. Several other scattered outages were reported, including one affecting customers in Lincoln, according to an outage alert issued by spokeswoman Susan Faloon about 4:15 p.m.